RELIGION OF PEACE: Plows Semi Truck Through Christmas Market, Killer is On the Run…

This is what happens when there is little to no vetting of refugees. Angela Merkel is in ‘mourning’ right now after this attack. She should be mourning what she did to her country. Absolutely disgraceful.

Please keep the victims in your thoughts and prayers. They need all the help they can get.

A refugee is thought to have been behind the wheel of a 25-tonne articulated lorry which mowed down and killed nine people – and injured 45 others – as it sped at 40mph through a busy Christmas market in Berlin.

As German police, the White House and the German Interior Minister indicated the incident may be terror related, ISIS moved quickly to claim responsibility for the fatal attack.

The vehicle laden with steel cargo mounted the pavement before tearing through stalls and shoppers in the market on Breitscheidplatz Square, outside the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the German capital’s main shopping area.

The driver, who according to German newspaper Die Welt, was a refugee of Afghan or Pakistani heritage who had arrived in Germany in February – fled the scene before being arrested at a nearby zoo.

A passenger in the cab died at the scene and the Polish-registered lorry was stolen from a construction site – after the haulage firm said they lost contact with the driver in the afternoon.

The vehicle left a trail of devastation in its wake, in a chilling echo of the deadly terror attack in the French city of Nice in July – and came just one hour after the Russian ambassador was shot dead in Ankara.

The incident comes amid repeated warnings from security agencies that supporters of Islamic State could launch lone wolf terror attacks at festive markets across Europe.

Germany’s justice minister says federal prosecutors, who handle terrorism cases, had taken over the investigation, while police used Twitter to urge locals to stay in their homes and ‘check suspicious objects’ and encouraged people to use a Facebook safety check loved ones were safe.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she is ‘mourning the dead’, while The White House said: ‘The United States condemns in the strongest terms what appears to have been a terrorist attack on a Christmas Market in Berlin, Germany, which has killed and wounded dozens.’

The truck owner said he lost contact with his cousin, who was transporting steel beams from Poland to Germany.

Last night, speaking on Polish news channel TVN24, the owner of the haulage firm said: ‘I can say hand on heart that the man who drove into those people in the centre of Berlin was not my driver.

‘This is my cousin. I’ve known him since I was born. My scenario is that they did something to the driver – they hijacked this vehicle because it was practically in the centre of Berlin and they had a good vehicle with which they could do what they did.

‘It wasn’t my driver, the one that was driving it. They did something to my driver, God forbid, something serious. It looks like that.’

Mike Fox, a tourist from Birmingham, said the large truck missed him by about three meters as it drove into the market, tearing through tables and wooden stands.

‘It was definitely deliberate,’ he said.

Mr Fox said he helped people who appeared to have broken limbs, and said others were trapped under Christmas stands, adding: ‘We were in the market, outside the cathedral and we had just had mulled wine then as we were leaving the large truck came through.

‘It went just past me, past my girlfriend. I think it missed me by three metres, missed her by five.

‘It came in through the entrance, hit the sides of the barriers and then carried on past us.’

Emma Rushton from Rugby in Warwickshire, saw the lorry rush past her at speed and said it could not have been an accident.

She told Sky News she only missed being caught in the chaos because she had climbed up some steps to take a seat.

Ms Rushton said: ‘The stall that we bought our mulled wine from was completely crushed. People were tearing off wooden panels to get out.